Mary: John, this is your grandma and grandpa.

John: Mom, where is grandpa now?

Mary (with a drop of tear): He is not alive now.

Mary: Hey John! See how lean your dad is.

(After seeing all the photos)

John: I am not there in your marriage album. You missed me.

(John cries at the top of his throat)

Mary was unable to convince his son and finally she said : 

Mary: John, you were playing outside the marriage hall and so you are not in our marriage album.

            John now laughs at himself thinking of his innocent 4 year old question when he shows his marriage album to his son (and when his son asks the same question). That’s the power of photograph. It is the rewind button of our life.

           Even in this slide show generation, we capture some important events in albums. When we dust some of our old albums from cupboards, we sneeze memories. Some important moments in our lives does not last even a minute and photographs pause those minutes.

            I remember one of my friends saying that he would capture every day of his child’s life in an album. Imagine how great the child would feel if he is shown his everyday development or growth. Every photo has an interesting story concealed in it.Even if some of our photos are animated (recollecting Stephen Leacock’s “With the photographer”), our emotions cannot be animated.

            Photo album is of course a visual diary.